Optimizing Ace King: The Right Strategy for Playing Poker's Most Complex Starting Hand

By: James Sweeney, Adam Jones, Ed Miller - foreword

Narrated by: James Sweeney

Length: 5 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Ace King is a massively profitable hand. In fact, AK is in the top-5 percent of winning hands and accounts for a good chunk of your win rate. But despite that fact, many players are confused about how to approach this hand. Should you 3bet it preflop, or just call it? Should you play the suited and offsuit versions the same, or differently? Should you c-bet with air, or check instead? And how many streets of value is top pair really worth?  

Most players struggle with AK due to small leaks in their strategy. So Optimizing Ace King (OAK) doesn't look to give you a bunch of memorized plays and tactics. Instead, OAK shows you how AK fits within your strategy and ranges. This prepares you for playing AK, among other hands, in a variety of spots and under a variety of conditions.  

James "SplitSuit" Sweeney and Adam "W34Z3L" Jones co-wrote this book to take an in-depth look at poker strategy through the lens of a single hand. Concepts include 3betting, 4betting, cbetting, barreling, GTO vs. exploitative play, and deducing lines from GTO solver output.   

You will play AK 99.9 percent of the time you are dealt it, and since it makes up such a large chunk of your win rate, doesn't it make sense to strengthen your approach with it? Each chapter builds upon the last, walking you through preflop play, flop play (when you hit, miss, and flop draws), and turn + river play. Plus there is an entire chapter full of examples and a chapter dedicated strictly to tournaments.   

If your win rate with AK could use a boost, invest a few chips and see the ROI in no time at all!  

(The foreword is written by legendary poker author Ed Miller.)

©2018 SplitSuit LLC (P)2018 SplitSuit LLC

good book

touches on some good concepts that ultimately lead you to their paid website. well played

Excellent job James!! helping me crush

crushing because of your book. I listen to it in the car for my windshield education on the way to Las Vegas.

A good introduction to deeper theory

Good training examples to common poker dilemmas.

Author’s delivery is good, though it sometimes sounds too much like he’s reading from a script.

Splitsuit really breaks it down

it took him five hours to break down two simple cards. This is not a game for the weak of heart!

Sweeney's content is poker gold

Nobody tells aspiring poker players "what you're doing sucks and here's some better ways to think about this" more efficiently or in a nicer manner than James Splitsuit Sweeney. Buy this book and then check out his treasure trove of content for free and various pay levels all over the web. Consistently great stuff.

Excellent.....but Not for Beginners

This is an excellent book and very easy to listen to. Although this tackles one of the most misplayed starting hands in holdem, much of its analysis can be applied in general and enhance the play of the already advanced player. WARNING...if you are a beginner and don't already have some understanding of SPR, Pot and Implied Odds, GTO and positive EV play, then you may have some difficulty grasping quite a bit in this book. It will still be helpful, but you'll miss out on some significant value from the book.

Ew.

I wish I could leave negative stars.

A nasal, squealing, hard-to-listen-to voice, the aural equivalent of biting down on wool wrapped in tinfoil. Imagine Quint in Jaws scratching his nails down a blackboard, but making general observations about poker while doing it, and you will fully understand the experience of listening to this book. And worse, Quint's fingernails are reading out tired poker cliches you can find for free by doing a youtube search of “how to play poker”. Five minutes in, and you’re still being advertised at to go use the author’s website - which, guess what, has a weekly subscription fee.

Save yourself an Audible credit, go buy Annie Duke’s books instead. More fun to listen to, and you’ll learn more, faster.